Generic research designs in the study of education: A systemic typology

A typology is a classification system by type, that is, by the formal structure of a study. In this typology a distinction is drawn between a generic research design and a methodology. The former - the generic research design - refers to the over-arching formal plan for achieving specified disciplinary goals. The latter-the methodology - refers integratively to: (a) the data-generating processes; and (b) the datal reduction procedures for discerning datal patterns. In this typology, generic research designs are cross-classified by two dimensions: (a) the researcher's assumptions about time and space; (b) the researcher's topics of study - (1) the idea; and (2) the object of the idea: the unit set and the class or set. There are 10 generic research designs: (1) the review of research; (2) the conceptual book review; (3) the philosophical study; (4) the simulation; (5) history; (6) the case study; (7) the post hoc analysis; (8) the survey; (9) the experiment; (10) the meta-analysis. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.